1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thermal printhead and a method of manufacturing a thermal printhead.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventionally known thermal printhead includes a substrate, a glaze layer, a heating resistor and an electrode. This type of thermal printhead is disclosed in e.g. JP-A-2012-51319. In the thermal printhead disclosed in this document, the glaze layer is on the substrate. The glaze layer serves to store the heat generated at the heating resistor. The heating resistor is on the glaze layer. The electrode includes two portions spaced apart from each other. The heating resistor has a heater portion that bridges these two portions.
During the use of the thermal printhead, the heater portion heats up to an extremely high temperature. When the heater portion heats up, a eutectic region may be formed at the portion where the heater portion and the electrode are in contact with each other. When a eutectic region is formed at the contact portion of the heater portion and the electrode, the characteristics of the heater portion or the electrode will change, which may cause the resistance of the thermal printhead to change to a value different from a desired value.